


The Door

by crimsxnflxwerz



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coraline, Coraline typical horror, Gen, I'll add more tags later, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-30 06:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12647706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsxnflxwerz/pseuds/crimsxnflxwerz
Summary: “Don’t you want this?” the other Shane says, and his shiny, deep brown button eyes gleam in the low light. Another firework splits the sky like lightning, but this time Ryan can feel it in his gut, can feel the wrongness grip his body like the cold. “Everything you’ve ever wanted, it can be yours. If only you stay here, with me.”Ryan just wanted to love and be loved in return. When did this become such a mess? [Coraline AU]





	1. the boy and the dog

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd again. this isn't as important so i dont rly need one. if there's any major grammar issues, just lmk
> 
> Authors Note: decided to put this fic through a rewrite. I'm writing an outline as we speak. I promise the second go will be better.

“Help me unpack, Ryan.” His mother asked, stepping out of their car.

“ _Fine_ ,” Ryan said, shoving his phone into his pocket, before getting out as well.

Ryan hated moving. He wished that he could just stay in one place. So many of his friends stayed in place, planted and left to flower. Not him, though, he swore he was destined to get uprooted each time. Just when he’d thought he could settle down here, he could survive this new climate and endure this new environment, he was ripped away from it. It made him feel lonely. Though he always managed to round up a few friends in each place, as he grew up, it had been getting harder and harder to do that.

He knew his parents’ divorce would ultimately be really hard on him. His father was the one that kept them anchored in one place, and his mother would travel often. After they split, and his mother got total custody of him, he prepared himself for a move. He would see his father once a month, well hypothetically, but it never really worked out. His father did send him letters and gifts occasionally. He guessed he couldn’t be disappointed if he hadn’t had any expectations in the first place.

Together, they managed to move all the boxes into their new house rather quickly. They were only two people, so they didn’t exactly have that many possessions. The major things had already been taken care of by the movers, like beds and other furniture. They decided that they would unpack things they needed immediately today, and the rest later.

Ryan stood in his new kitchen, turning the faucet on and off, staring out the window.

“Ry, why don’t you go play outside?” his mother suggested. She sat at the round, two-person table in the middle of the room with her notebook and laptop. His mother was a reporter, taking notes on interesting current events, and travelling around to find better places to write about and inspire her. She moved to the small town in Oregon. It was isolated, but that was what made it interesting. Recently, Ryan noticed that his mother’s interest had been piqued while researching urban folklore. Small towns tended to run rampant with stories and tall tales. Living in one would give her perspective.

Ryan wasn’t too hyped about it. Before this, he only ever lived in or around cities. While each place they lived had its differences, they all had things in common with city living. Small, loud, busy. He always had something to do and somewhere to be in the city. No matter the time of day, something was going on. Sure, there were things he didn’t miss about the city, too. Like traffic, and pollution, and having no real place to go if he wanted to just roll around in some grass or something.

Ryan rolled his eyes and turned the faucet off. Outside there were barely any other houses, mostly trees and shrubbery for miles. The spectacle of messing around outside wore off after the last place they lived when he stepped on a rusted nail and needed to get a tetanus shot and stitches in his foot.

“It’s raining out, though.” He complained, trying to think of a good reason to just stay inside and do nothing.

“Oh, that reminds me, I have a present for you.” His mother said, and stood up to go into her bedroom. Ryan watched her go, and saw that she was carrying a flat box. She opened it and lifted out a lemon-yellow raincoat. She held it out to him.

“I got you this, since we moved to somewhere that’s known to be rainier,” she explained. “I know you don’t have a raincoat, so I thought you might need one.”

Ryan’s face lit up slightly. He took the raincoat and felt it against his hands. It was soft, despite its rubbery texture to keep out the rainwater. He slipped it on and grinned happily.

“Thanks mom!” he said, hugging her briefly, before going towards the front door.

“Be back by dinner, kiddo!” she called after him. He ran to get his boots. He had two pairs of thin, rubbery boots from the city. One of them perfectly matched his new coat, so he slipped those on. He didn’t have much in terms of colorful clothing items, so the yellow was a stark contrast to the black pants and socks he wore.

He ran outside. It wasn’t raining too hard anymore, just a little drizzle, but he put the hood to his coat up anyways. As soon as he was outside, he looked around for something weird to explore. The neighbors were pretty far away, and he wasn’t really too interested in making friends right now anyways, so he scrapped that idea pretty quickly. After a moment, he spotted a stone path leading down a hill off the side of their house.

“Mmm, perfect,” he muttered under his breath, and began to follow it. The path was made of mis-matched stones, like a garden path, taking a long curve down the hill so that the slope was gradual instead of dramatic. As he walked down the path, he noticed that the thick line of trees didn’t start for another few yards. Instead, there was a large, grassy clearing with clusters of grey boulders and stones scattered about. Looking down towards the bottom, he saw that the trail turned into dirt. Well, it was likely mud now in this weather.

To his left there was a cluster of rocks. A rustling drew Ryan’s attention. He looked over, but didn’t see anything that made the noise immediately.

“Hello?” he called out. “Anyone there?”

He shuffled his feet nervously, plunging his hands deep in his coat pocket. He found some lint there, which he tossed out, watching it fall to the ground. Just as he turned, he heard more rustling, and a low growling. He started, turning to run the rest of the way down the hill. At the bottom, he hit a patch of mud and fell heavily onto his knee.

“Ahh!” he yelped, clutching his knee. He sat up, brushing off dirt and mud from his clothes. He saw that he’d managed to land on a rock. There was a large tear in his pants, and a gash in his knee that was bleeding. He sucked in a breath as rainwater dripped down into the cut.

“Dang,” he whispered, and shakily got back onto his feet. He shivered, the world around him looking a lot darker now than before. He moved on further down the trail into a thin patch of trees. The ground was muddy, but also rocky. Ryan took care not to slip again, his knee throbbing painfully. He let out a sigh, coming up to a rather large fallen tree. As he approached it, however, he heard the rustling again. His entire body stiffened in horror.

He knew he was being dramatic, but he couldn’t help but feel fearful in a new place. He didn’t know what lived in Oregon, there could be a bear stalking him for all he knew!

Just as he was backing away, a white blur pounced out from behind the log. Ryan screamed, but then quickly realized that it wasn’t something to be scared of after all. It was just a dog. Ryan recognized it as some kind of white terrier. It barked at him, before trotting up and sniffing at his feet. Ryan saw that it was mostly white, except for a single brown and black ear. Ryan giggled.

“Are you the thing that was scaring me?” he asked. The dog looked up at him and tilted its head to the side. It didn’t have a collar, so he wasn’t sure if it were a stray or not.

The dog barked again, wagging its tail rapidly, before trotting off along the path towards where it seemed to be leveling out. Ryan followed it hesitantly, and came upon an old, decrepit clearing that looked like it used to be _something_. In the center of the clearing, the dog sniffed around a raised circular section. It was covered in mud in lumps, but some places were cleared enough to reveal rotted wood.

Before he could move closer, he was startled by a loud revving noise. The dog started barking at the surprise. Down the hill came a cloaked figure on a motorbike of some kind. They drove around them and skidded to a halt on the other side of the clearing. Ryan took a closer look and saw that it looked to be a boy, older than him, with a checkered bandana covering his nose and mouth. On his head was a go-pro camera attached to a head strap. It made his damp hair stick out in odd directions around it.

He kicked off the bike, turning it off and stepping onto the muddy ground. The dog yapped some more, running over to the boy and running up on him. Once he was standing straight up, Ryan saw that he was very tall. He had at least five or six inches on him, which was a lot, at least in Ryan’s mind. It was kind of intimidating. Although, most of the intimidation wore off when he saw the big guy practically melt petting the yappy white dog.

“I was wondering where you got off to!” he laughed, rubbing the dog behind its ears. “Who’s a good puppy, you are! You found the new kid!”

Ryan cleared his throat. “Hey, I’m right here?” he called out.

The big guy gave the dog a few more pats, before looking over at Ryan. He pulled the bandana down to reveal his face. Ryan tried not to blush. The guy was pretty cute.

“Yeah,” he said. He approached, scratching the back of his neck nervously. Ryan noticed that he tended to slouch. Does that mean he’s actually even taller? “You’re the new kid. I’m Shane.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Yeah, I’m Ryan.”

“Ryan? Can I call you Ry?” Shane asked. He had a casual face, even though his body language screamed nervous. Ryan crossed his arms.

“No.”

“Okay, Ry.” Shane said. He turned back towards the thing that the dog was sniffing at earlier. “Do you know what this is, Ry?”

“Don’t call me that,” Ryan snipped, then joined Shane, crouched by the circle in the center of the clearing. Shane picked up a small pebble and brushed some dirt away with a gloved hand, revealing a small hole in the wood.

“Watch,” he said, and pushed the pebble down into the hole. For a long time, there wasn’t a single noise, not a ping or a splash or anything to imply that the pebble had landed yet. Ryan could have sworn that the pebble continuously dropped for around thirty seconds until a very distant plop reverberated up to them.

“It’s a well?” Ryan asked. “That’s a long fall. Isn’t this, uh, dangerous?”

Shane laughed. “Of course, it is. Well, as long as you don’t fall in, you’ll be fine! But no one’s going to fill it in. No one fixes anything in this town.”

Shane stood, the dog coming around to rub against his leg. Ryan winced when he straightened up, accidentally leaning the heel of his hand into his wounded knee. Shane did a double-take of Ryan’s leg, and suddenly looked alarmed.

“Is that blood? Ry, are you okay?” Shane asked, sounding a little panicked.

“Calm down, will ya?” Ryan snapped. He looked down and saw that there was dried blood and mud caked onto his exposed knee. “It’s just a cut.”

“You’re going to get it infected.” Shane fretted. He held out an arm as if to grab Ryan’s wrist, but stopped himself at the last second, looking to Ryan’s face for permission. “Can I carry you?”

“No, no, no, no.” Ryan said. But something in his voice must’ve sounded like a yes, because Shane smirked and scooped Ryan up into his arms. He paused, however.

“Oh, my bike.” He said. “Want to hop onto my back, instead?”

Ryan was completely red in the face when Shane put him back down. He nodded without a fight and climbed onto Shane’s back, wrapping his arms around the taller boy’s neck and his legs around his waist. Shane walked over to his bike and hopped on, Ryan moving down to sit on the back end, transferring his arms around Shane’s neck, to his waist. Shane started up the bike and drove up the path, the dog barking and chasing after them.

When they got to Ryan’s front porch, he hopped off the bike and went to sit on the steps. Shane kicked the bike stand down and followed Ryan to the porch.

“Ah, the pink palace.” Shane said thoughtfully. “Oh yeah, you’re the new family that moved in here.”

“The pink palace?” Ryan asked, wincing again as he tried to wipe some of the mud off his knee. Shane noticed and went to his bike. There was a container strapped to the back. He unzipped it and pulled a few things out, including water, a small white bottle, a white hand towel, and a linen wrapping. He came over with the supplies, setting them on the porch.

“Yeah, my grandmother owns the pink palace. Was her parents place, but they moved out a long time ago.” He explained, rolling Ryan’s ripped pant leg up. “Wanna take your shoe and sock off? I don’t want to get them wet.”

Ryan slid his boot and sock off, putting them aside. Shane wiped some mud away with the towel, then poured some water on it and wiped more off until it was mostly cleaned out. The cleaning opened it back up, and it bled a little bit.

“Why’d they move out?” Ryan asked. He looked up at the looming house. It was the first time he got a really good look at it. Right now, it was sectioned off into three apartments. He and his mother had the middle section. “It must’ve been so big all opened up.”

“Well, when my grandmother was just a little girl, she had a sister.” Shane explained. “Her sister stopped playing with her, and would fight with their parents more and more until she finally disappeared. My grandmother says she was taken away by something in the house.”

“Something in the house?” Ryan asked. Shane uncapped the white bottle and squirted out some white paste onto his fingers. He rubbed them together before rubbing it into the gash. Ryan bit his lip to stop himself from crying out. He didn’t want to look like a total wuss. “Did the sister ever come back?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Shane paused, before rolling out a portion of the bandage and ripping it with his teeth. He started wrapping. “She didn’t have a sister. Well, she does have this picture in her attic of her with a girl who looks very similar to her, but no one seems to remember her sister.”

Ryan felt like he should gasp at the revelation. “So, who’s in the picture, then?”

Shane shook his head. “I only ever saw it once. If my parents never told me otherwise, I would have assumed it was her sister.” He ripped off a piece of medical tape and finished the wrapping. “Feel better?”

Ryan smiled. “Yeah.” He blushed. “Thanks, Shane. Why do you have all these supplies?”

“Oh, I’m outside a lot and,” he paused, scratching the back of his head. “I like to be prepared.”

The dog from earlier came running up from behind the house then, jumping up onto the porch and licking at Ryan’s cheek.

“Haha, get down!” he shooed the dog. Shane rubbed the dog behind its ears. “Is it your dog?”

“Ah, no,” Shane said, sounding a little disappointed. “Ma won’t let me have a dog, but this puppy likes me well enough. I feed him half my lunchmeat sandwiches, and he gives me company when I go searching for bigfoot.”

“Bigfoot? You know that’s not real, right?” Ryan teased, rolling down his pant leg and grabbing his sock and boot. Shane simply laughed.

“That’s what everyone says, but I know that he’s real,” he said. He stepped back and motioned at his camera. “I’m gonna catch bigfoot, and his bigfoot wife, and his bigfoot children on my go-pro I got for my birthday.”

Ryan wheezed in laughter as Shane bent over to collect his medical supplies. He went over to put them back in his bike pack. Ryan hopped up to walk over after his boot was on.

“Well, good luck,” he said, shuffling his feet awkwardly. “Do you think I could join you on a hunt sometime?”

Shane turned and grinned. He reached out and ruffled Ryan’s hair. To Ryan, Shane’s hand was quite large. He was just a big, tall guy in general. Ryan blushed. He felt like a child in comparison. He was fifteen, damnit.

“Of course! Oh, we also look for gnomes,” he added. “I know they’re real, where else do all my left socks go?”

Ryan laughed again, and Shane chuckled a bit, too. “Sounds like fun.”

Shane nodded. “If you want, we can go out tomorrow. Just meet me here around 3:30?”

“Yeah, sure,” he grinned. The white dog ran over and circled them a few times, barking.

“Hey, calm down pup!” Shane said, laughing. The dog growled playfully, before darting off in the direction of the neighbor’s house. “Wait up!” Shane called out, but he paused, “See you around?”

Ryan nodded. “Yeah, you will.” He said. Shane hopped onto his bike then and started it up, driving in the direction of the stray dog.

Ryan stood outside a little bit longer, staring off in the direction where Shane went off. He stood there in the rain until he heard his mother calling him in to dinner. After dinner, he curled up in his bed. He stared blankly at his bare walls for a moment, mentally putting together everything he would put up tomorrow to decorate his room. This might not be what he would call home, but he could make it work. He was going to be here for a while, anyways.

Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, and dreamt of goofy smiles and little white dogs.


	2. the doll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> time for the doll

When Ryan woke, it was to the scurrying of mice. He blinked his eyes open, rubbing the bleary-ness out of them before looking around. He saw the shadow of an animal round the corner into the hallway. Ryan slid out of bed and changed quickly into his clothes. When he peaked into the hallway, there wasn’t anything there. Maybe he had still been dreaming, though he could have sworn the squeaks he heard had been real.

Walking into the kitchen, he saw that the clock on the wall said 7am. It was still a few days before school started up again, so he didn’t need to be ready for anything. He opened his fridge, but there wasn’t much in it. A few jars of half empty jams, a few slices of kraft cheese, and a jug of milk. Ryan grabbed a jar of raspberry jam and closed the fridge. On the counter, he saw a single loaf of pre-sliced white bread. There wasn’t much food in the house. He figured his mother would go shopping today, as he popped a piece of bread into their pop up toaster, he wondered if he could go with her. The timer clicked as it counted down.

Standing in the kitchen, he felt a shiver run through him. He glanced towards the window, and saw that the window was cracked open, and rain was sprinkling in. Ryan walked over to the window, wondering if he had maybe opened it and forgot. After he pulled it closed, a ding made him jump. He spun around and saw that it was only his toast that had popped up done.

“Chill out, Ryan.” He told himself, placing a hand over his chest. He took the toast and spread the measly amount of jam over it. He usually put butter on the bread first, but they didn’t have any. He wondered if his mother was awake. He ate his toast and put the jam back in the fridge.

“Mom?” he asked, walking down the hall. He knocked on her door, but it wasn’t closed all the way, so it creaked open. The room inside was neatly put together. It looked like his mother had put a lot of her things away. Her bed was made, her clothes put away, but her travel bag was missing. Ryan sighed. His mother must’ve already went out. He hoped that she would get him some snack if she had the extra money.

He moved back to his room to get his phone. He sent her a text about a snack, but he knew she probably wouldn’t check her phone until after she got back. She was gone so early this time, he wondered if she’d gone out on an inspirational whim, maybe she found something online that she wanted to investigate in person.

When Ryan looked outside, it was still raining. He wanted to go outside, so he threw his raincoat and boots on, and opened the front door. He noticed however, that there was something wrapped up on the porch. Ryan picked it up and turned it over. It was oddly shaped. He stepped back inside and closed the door as he began to open it.

On the inside, there was a note. It was addressed to him.

_Ryan,_

_I was snooping around in my grandmother’s attic when I notice this odd doll. I think it’s handmade, but it looks exactly like you. I wonder who made it. I figured you could have it. She’s getting rid of this stuff anyways._

_-Shane_

Ryan unwrapped the package completely and looked at the doll. It was small, with soft limbs and a round face. It had his same skin tone, and haircut. That wasn’t the weirdest thing, however. It was wearing a replica of his new raincoat, his yellow boots, and his black pants. The only weird thing about it were its shiny, black, button eyes. It smiled up at him from where he held it.

“A little me?” he asked. He couldn’t brush off his sense of unease that he got from the doll, but he had to admit it was kind of cool. It was one of a kind. Did that make him special? Whoever made it obviously put a lot of care into it. The stitches were well done, the clothing was pristine, he was impressed.

“Hey little me, what do you wanna do today?” Ryan asked the doll. He put the doll into his pocket, just so that its arms hung out. “We’re gonna snoop some until mom gets back.”

Touring around the house was something he needed to do anyways, so he might as well make a game out of it. He grabbed a notepad and a pen from his mother’s office and started wandering. He started by looking at the windows. They had an old, fanciful feel to them. He sketched one, just for fun, but when it didn’t turn out he crumpled up the paper and tossed it.

“Why is art so hard?” he asked the little doll. It stared back with its beady eyes. “Maybe if I had a ruler.”

Ryan searched for a ruler around, opening drawers and moving boxes. He looked in every room he thought he’d find one, until he made his way to the kitchen again. His stomach growled, but he ignored it in favor of his search. He opened a few drawers until he came to one on an edge counter. Opening it, he saw that the drawer was full of keys. His eyebrows furrowed.

“Keys?” he asked. “What do you think, little me?”

He looked down at the doll. It didn’t answer him, like he expected, but he kind of related to it’s blank, but happy expression. He smiled at it. Looking back into the drawer, most of the keys looked the same, but there was one that stood out. It was an old, black key, the bow of it shaped like a button. Ryan picked it out of the mess and put it into the pocket with the doll.

“Let’s see where this key goes.” He told the doll. But just as he said that, he heard a car pull into the driveway. Glancing at the clock, it had been around 3 hours already. He ran to the front door and outside, seeing his mother with grocery bags.

“Need some help?” he asked as he approached her, grabbing some bags from the car. She smiled at him.

“Thanks,” she said, taking the rest of the bags from the trunk. They take the bags into the house and start taking things out and pulling them onto the counter.

“I didn’t think you’d be awake so early, hun.” His mother admitted. I knew you’d be hungry, so I bought some stuff for lunch.”

Ryan helped put everything away before they started making lunch. Juice in the fridge, snacks in the pantry, and ice cream in the freezer. When Ryan sat down at the kitchen table to wait for the food to be done, his mother noticed the doll in his pocket.

“Ryan, what’s that?” his mother asked. Ryan looked down at the doll and pulled it out of its hiding place in his pocket.

“Oh, this is little me,” he said. “Doesn’t it look like me? Shane brought it over.”

“Shane?” she gently took the doll from him to get a closer look. “Wow, it looks exactly like you. Are you sure he didn’t make it?”

“Yeah, Shane’s the weird neighbor kid.” Ryan explained. “I don’t think he’s much of a crafter. I think he spends most of his time hunting bigfoot.”

His mother laughed and handed the doll back. Ryan put it back in his pocket. “Are you gonna start searching for bigfoot, too?”

“Actually, yeah, he invited me,” Ryan said. “I don’t really believe in bigfoot, but I figured I’d humor him.”

“Mhm,” she agreed. “and then next week you’ll look for ghosts, too?”

“Ghosts are real, mom!” Ryan argued, although it had no heat in it. “I’ll find evidence eventually.”

“I bet you will.” She put their lunch in the oven when it beeped to signal that it was preheated.

After lunch, Ryan tried to find the door that the key belonged to. He looked all over the house, but couldn’t find a single door that matched the key. He hummed in frustration. What could it possibly be to? Sooner than later, 3pm rolled around, and he figured he might as well meet Shane outside. He grabbed a shoulder bag and stuffed a flashlight, a notebook, and a pen into it. The doll went, too. As he stepped outside, he stepped awkwardly down one of the steps and felt a stabbing pain in his knee. He sucked in a breath. _Don’t be a wuss, Ryan, it’s just a scratch_ , he thought. He gave it a squeeze, before continuing out into the front yard. Glancing around, he couldn’t really see much since a fog seemed to have settled in after the rain had cleared out. The fog was like a cloud had flattened itself against the Earth, moving in swirling motions around plants, spiraling around his yellow boots.

After a moment of standing around, he heard a bark to his right. He could just see the neighbor’s house, and his eyes caught the sight of the little white dog running up the path to his house. It slowed down when it got to him and started sniffing around his shoes.

“ _Boo_!” a voice from behind Ryan forced a scream from him. He jumped around and saw Shane standing there, clutching his stomach as he laughed.

“Fucking jerk!” Ryan shouted, punching Shane’s arm. The taller boy rubbed his arm, but otherwise continued laughing. The dog started barking happily and trotting circles around them.

“I got you good, Ry.” He joked. Ryan made a noise of irritation and crossed his arms.

“Are we going to go look for this fairy tale or not?” he snapped. Shane’s laughter tapered off, he wiped are his eyes with the back of his hand, then reached up and clicked a button on the go-pro strapped to his head. “Do you always have that on?”

Shane paused for a moment, a look of contemplation on his face, before he nodded in mock seriousness. “You never know when you’re going to stumble upon a bigfoot family.” He explained.

Ryan rolled his eyes. The dog whined and pawed at Shane’s long jacket. “C’mon, even the dog wants to get going.” He teased.

The two of them traveled towards the woods, walking past the old well and down the grassy hills into the tree line. It was dark as soon as they stepped into the woods, so they both pulled out their flashlights. Ryan pulled out his phone to check the time. 3:45pm. He looked up and saw that where there would normally be sunlight poking through the leaves, there were only thick, black clouds. It reminded him of the smog of the city, blotting out all the stars at night. He shivered, despite it not being too chilly. Shane whistled, and Ryan heard the dog bounding through fallen leaves to return to them. He fed it a strip of beef jerky from his coat pocket.

“Do you just, uh, carry around beef jerky?” Ryan asked, smirking. Shane t’sked.

“Hey, the dog needs to eat, too.” He said. Ryan laughed. “Also, maybe the smell of sweet teriyaki will attract bigfoot.”

“Are you sure he’s not more of a barbeque guy?” Ryan asked. Shane groaned.

“Oh no, what if he is?” he said in mock fear. Ryan laughed again.

The two of them continued on, filming odd sounds and investigating various animal nests, debating over what animals they belonged to. Shane, as expected, expertly explained that if he couldn’t comfortably lay in it, then it must not be a bigfoot nest. Which was an opening for Ryan to tease him about his height.

“Well, you know what they say about bullies,” Shane said to the teasing. There was a distinct pause, to which Ryan assumed he was generously waiting for his friend to supply the much-needed ‘what?’. Ryan didn’t budge. Shane looked physically strained, but then sighed when he saw that he wasn’t going to cooperate. “They only tease you about things they’re jealous of.”

“What?” Ryan said immediately. “Yeah, _sure_ they do.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, Ry.” He said.

“Don’t call me that,” Ryan said. “Then I guess all those bullies wanted my ‘ _large teeth_ ’ and ‘ _questionable background_ ’ at my old school.”

There was an awkward moment of silence. “I don’t think your teeth are big.” Shane said quietly. “Wait, what does questionable background even mean?”

“They couldn’t decide if I was Mexican or Asian.” He snapped. “It was to optimize their racist stereotyping.”

“Oh,” Shane answered shortly, then, “I just think you’re short.”

Despite himself, Ryan let out a soft chuckle. The white dog came over to trot beside him. It whined and Ryan leaned down to scratch it behind the ears.

The continued on, and managed to photograph a few deer, a fox, and a handful of squirrels and birds before it became too dark, even for the camera. They headed back towards Ryan’s house at that point. Ryan, with a slight limp, since he’d probably over-exerted himself with his injury.

Ryan pulled out the doll when they were almost back. He ran a thumb over the button eyes.

“You like the doll?” Shane asked. It wasn’t a tease, he seemed genuinely curious.

“Yeah,” he said. “Hey, if you made this, then you can tell me, y’know? I won’t make fun of you.”

Shane scoffed. “I wouldn’t make a doll of _you_. Even if I could sew.” Ryan frowned.

“Why not?” he asked. Shane shrugged.

“Well, other than the hair,” he accentuated this by ruffling Ryan’s raven-blue locks. “You’re really nothing special.”

Ryan shoved the doll back into his bag. Well, apparently, he wasn’t too special. “Who _would_ you make a doll of?”

Shane pondered the question for a little bit, tapping his chin in thought. “The dog.”

Ryan rolled his eyes and decided that the conversation was over. The two of them walked back to Ryan’s porch in silence. Ryan was about to storm off, when Shane caught his wrist.

“Free tomorrow?” he asked. Ryan yanked his arm away.

“I dunno, why don’t you just hang out with the dog?” he snipped, and hurried into the house.

“Ry—” he started, but Ryan had already slammed the front door closed. He walked right past the kitchen and his mother’s office and bedroom, down to his own bedroom. He pulled out his phone and plugged it in. It was already 8 pm; so, he changed into his pajamas, put the key necklace and doll on his nightstand, and crawled into bed.

It only felt like a second, but suddenly he was awake. He heard a small thud and a squeak, and his eyes flew open. His gaze caught the retreating shadow of a mouse escaping his room. He didn’t remember leaving his door open, but maybe his mother had come in to check on him or something, so he didn’t give it much thought.

Looking to his nightstand, he grabbed the key necklace and put it on, then grabbed the doll.

“Did you see that mouse?” he asked the doll. He felt a little childish now, playing with the doll. As if what Shane had said somehow made what he did in his spare time embarrassing. Although, he couldn’t be too hard on himself. What else was he supposed to do with no other kids his age around, in the middle of the woods, and barely any access to the internet?

Shaking off the new embarrassment, he took the doll with him as he followed where the mouse went. As he entered the hall, he heard another tiny squeak, and saw the tail of a mouse disappear down the hall.

“Maybe we should get a cat,” he joked to the doll. “Get rid of the mice.”

He crept down the hall, following the shadows and mice squeaks until he found himself in the parlor, or rather the living room without a television. Seriously, their television had broken in the move, so they had to live without one for a while before his mother could afford one again. It kind of sucked, but he guessed he didn’t need tv all the time.

He spotted the mice squeeze behind a sofa in the corner of the room that was pressed up against a wall. He noticed that it was the wall that his mother said used to have a door in it, the door to another apartment that was boarded up before they’d moved in.

Walking over, he looked down at the sofa in question. It was more like a loveseat, now that he thought about it. It should be easy to move. He braced himself against it and pushed. It slid easily across the wood floor, maybe it had little felt feet to make it easier to move?

Behind the sofa was a plain, dirty wall. Although, there was an obvious square in the wallpaper that looked to be some kind of hatch that had been wallpapered over in a poor attempt to disguise it. He assumed this door must lead to the other apartment. He got a little jittery thinking about exploring it.

Crouching down, he ran his fingers over the keyhole. It was probably locked. He gasped in realization, and pulled his necklace off. _This must be what this key was for_ , he thought.

He used the key end to cut the wallpaper around the door, then pushed the key into the keyhole and unlocked it. His heart pounded in anticipation. He yanked the door open.

“Awe…” he sighed when he saw that the space had been patched up with bricks. “What a bummer.”

He closed the door again and took the key. He put the necklace back on and tucked it into his pajama shirt. He looked down at the doll in his hand and frowned.

“I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” Standing up, he went back down the hall and crawled into bed, this time keeping the doll tucked in his arms as he got comfortable. “Too bad,” he yawned. “I was hoping for an adventure.”

The dolls eyes glinted oddly in the low moonlight from the window as Ryan fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmk if there are errors or wtv


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